


tech support

by The_Eclectic_Bookworm



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/M, set during btvs s5/ats s2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 02:26:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14632163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Eclectic_Bookworm/pseuds/The_Eclectic_Bookworm
Summary: Jenny's the newest Angel Investigations member, and Buffy and Giles need a book.





	tech support

Giles and Buffy show up just after sunset, both of them looking thoroughly exhausted. Angel, who’s been planning what he’s going to say to Buffy for the better part of the last five hours, looks unsurprisingly tongue-tied at the sight of her, so Cordelia steps in. “Welcome to Angel Investigations, we help the helpless, blah blah do you want those books you came for?” she asks.

“Yes, thank you,” says Giles with thinly disguised exasperation.

“Hold up.” Cordelia throws a wadded-up piece of paper at Jenny, who’s studiously typing some boring report or another. “Hey, tech support, you know where you put the Classical Guide to the Whatchamacallits?”

“Wow.” Jenny doesn’t look up. “Incredibly professional.”

“Oh, no, these are old friends.” Cordelia takes another look at Buffy. “Sort of.”

Jenny does look up, then, studying Giles and Buffy with polite interest. “Hi,” she says, waving a hand. “I’m tech support, apparently, and Cordelia _knows_ where the books are, she’s just bothering me because she doesn’t want to go upstairs.”

“It’s a _mess_ up there,” Cordelia complains. “And you still haven’t catalogued—”

“That’s Wesley’s job,” Jenny points out. “You can’t blame that one on me. The Dewey Decimal System doesn’t extend to supernatural cataloguing.”

“Actually,” says Giles.

Jenny looks over at Giles expectantly.

To Cordelia’s surprise, Giles doesn’t rattle off one of his usual useless factoids. Instead, he clears his throat awkwardly and looks away, turning slightly pink.

“Okay,” says Jenny, “cool,” and hurries away to go get Wesley for the books.

Cordelia’s intrigued, and a little annoyed. “Have you met Jenny?” she all but demands. Jenny never tells her _anything_.

“No, I, I don’t believe I have,” Giles manages, still looking kind of dazed. “I wasn’t aware that Angel’s organization was—um—expanding—beyond himself, Cordelia, and Wesley.”

“Funny story,” says Angel, finally managing to stop looking uncomfortable. Cordelia makes a mental note to tease him about that one later. “Apparently, Jenny was sent here to make sure I was still suffering, but then I caught her with a pair of binoculars and offered to have her join my team instead. Works pretty well for her family _and_ mine.” He smiles a little at Cordelia.

“Still suffering?” Buffy repeats a little apprehensively.

“Oh, her family kinda cursed me with my soul,” Angel explains lightly. “But Jenny’s not exactly the vengeance-driven type.”

“They couldn’t have chosen a worse person for the job, actually,” says Wesley, coming in with a box of books and placing it down on the hotel counter. Jenny follows, carrying a large grimoire with some effort. “Here—” Wesley turns, about to take it from her, but somehow Giles gets there first.

Cordelia stares, watching him say something soft and shy to Jenny. Jenny smiles, pressing a hand to her mouth.

“Oh my _god_ ,” says Buffy.

* * *

 

Giles seems to be stalling, and Buffy’s getting the sense that he wants to spend more time with the dark-haired tech support. Which, _gross,_ but Buffy also kind of wants him to be happy, so she asks Angel kinda quietly if they can stay the night.

“What?” says Angel, looking a little nervous.

Buffy hits him lightly and jerks her head towards Giles and Tech Support Lady.

“Oh,” says Angel, and then laughs. “Oh, no, there’s no way that’s going to work.”

“Well, you can judge all you want, Mr. Judgy—” Buffy begins indignantly.

Angel shakes his head. “That’s not it,” he says. “Giles is a pretty traditional guy. Jenny’s—not.”

Buffy decides that she’s done listening to relationship opinions from her vampire ex and goes back over to the group, sitting down between Cordelia and a guy she doesn’t know. Managing a polite smile in everyone’s general direction, she tries her best to listen in on Giles and Jenny’s conversation.

“Wow, really?” There’s a surprised laugh in Jenny’s voice. “I was applying to be a computer science teacher at Sunnydale High! We would have been there at the same time if the damn job interview hadn’t gone so badly for me.”

“How so?” Giles inquires, looking surprisingly cool and collected for a guy who’d been all star-struck fifteen minutes ago. Buffy guesses that all the time on the Hellmouth has mellowed him out a little.

“We got a warning about a lizard demon loose in the school and I decided that the job wasn’t for me,” Jenny explains. “Was that a normal thing while you were there?”

“Oh, _that_ wasn’t a lizard demon,” says Giles casually. “That was just a practical joke. We’ve had much worse than lizard demons, actually.”

“Hmm.” Jenny takes a bite of her croissant. “Probably a good thing I didn’t work there, then, or I’d have ended up dead within the first year.”

“Yes, our teacher mortality rate was _sparklingly_ high,” Giles quips.

“You should have, like, a T-shirt,” says Jenny with interest. “Something like _I Survived Sunnydale High—_ ” She pauses, cocking her head and studying Giles. “Nah,” she says finally. “That kind of thing is way too tacky for you.”

“Really?” Giles looks like he can’t tell whether or not that kind of statement is a compliment.  _It is, you British goof,_ Buffy tries to telepathically communicate, but he doesn’t seem to be getting the message.

Jenny smiles slowly. “Yeah, definitely,” she says, and places a hand on Giles’s leg. “You seem more of the…sophisticated type.”

Buffy decides right there that she’s done eavesdropping. She stands up, heading back over to Angel. “ _Flirting,_ ” she says, jerking her thumb back over her shoulder. “Flirting of the flirty variety. You _so_ can’t tell me that Jenny isn’t into Giles, because she very clearly is.”

“Talking to Angel about flirting?” There’s a half-laugh in Cordelia’s voice. “You’d do better talking to Giles about computers.” She scoots closer, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Jenny _likes_ Giles,” she informs Buffy and Angel.

Angel rolls his eyes. “If she _does,_ she just likes Giles because he’s hot,” he objects a little too loudly.

Jenny and Giles both look at Angel. Giles, who’s gone an interesting shade of red, looks down at Jenny’s hand on his leg as though he’s only just now noticed it, but Jenny just raises an eyebrow and says very smoothly, “I mean, you’re not wrong.” Then she turns back to a now utterly flustered Giles and resumes whatever it is they’re talking about.

“Since when is Giles hot?” Buffy demands, making sure to keep her voice low. “He’s—old!”

“For once, I’m with Buffy,” Cordelia agrees.

Angel’s blushing a little. “He’s—a very attractive man, that’s all,” he manages. “Not personally my type, but if he’d been interested—”

“ _Oh_ god,” Buffy groans.

* * *

 

Buffy is _insufferable_ on the drive back. “So,” she begins, “what’s the deal with you and Tech Support Lady?” and when Giles turns on the radio to drown out any further questions, she gives him a Look and switches it to country music. _Country music._ He’s at least become accustomed to some of the songs _she_ listens to, but this is positively undignified.

Giles, playing the part of the exasperated mentor, grits his teeth for show and keeps driving, but there’s a strange, bubbly feeling in his chest whenever he thinks about the Angel Investigations card Jenny had covertly tucked into his wallet with _call me!!!!_ written in loopy cursive on it. He’s doing his best not to smile, and it’s working until—

“Hey,” says Buffy, and lightly pokes his shoulder. “Hey, Giles, I think I left my sweater back at the Hyperion.”

Giles blinks, staring at her, and sees the mischievous look in her eyes, but he also sees the affectionate happiness. It occurs to him that Buffy is attempting to play matchmaker not out of a desire to create chaos, but because she genuinely wants to see him happy. He hadn’t realized that before.

“Oh,” he says. “Then—we should go back and get it, shouldn’t we?”

**Author's Note:**

> i might return to this? someday? but it's been sitting in my documents for a while, unfinished, so i wrote an end to it real quick because i really like this concept and i think it's very cute.


End file.
